Marketing!!!

Just came across this video. I'll refrain from saying anything more, and let you watch it. Leave behind your thoughts in the comments! 

Kal, aaj aur Kal

The idea for this post started out from a discussion with our VP today at work. Our team was presenting stuff we've worked on in the current quarter. At the end of the discussion, our VP asked a question, "How do you know if this stuff is going to be relevant three years from now?" What he meant was that given the current technology, of course what we were working on was useful, that it would add value for the consumer. But, what we're working on today might be rendered irrelevant by the rapid strides in technology! And he had a point. Today, the mobile phone is morphing into a computing platform. It's a device that enables a convergence in technology probably few would have visualized even five years ago. It's a device that's with you, whether you're working, or playing or socializing. You can use it to check e-mails on the go (even though it's still a nascent technology), click snaps on your lunch meeting, or capture a nifty video at your friend's wedding. Not only can you do all this, you can share what you're doing with your friends!! 

If we project this tremendous growth in the future, it's easy to see where our VP's question came from. And more importantly, what it points to. Today, it is no longer enough to innovate and come up with a bright idea. It's as important to make sure that people would still want that idea when it actually appears in a product! As technologists, it is no longer enough to be at the cutting edge today, it is imperative to be able to visualize what tomorrow's cutting edge technology would be. Else the millions of rupees that are spent in the R&D budgets would amount to nothing, apart from a smart prototype. Of course, this - visualizing the future - is not easy. Not everyone can be a visionary like Steve Jobs, and come up with the concept of an iPhone - and do it all over again with the iPhone 3G.  I read this post on Techcrunch a couple of weeks back, and that came to mind when I was thinking about this. Reid Hoffman (LinkedIn CEO) appearing on Charlie Rose commented that 'every individual is now an entrepreneur'. And it's true if you think about it in this context. You're an entrepreneur because you have to think about the technology trends, be in touch with the market directions. Of course, you could just forget about all that and just bury your head in the gory stuff - the equations, and the code and all that. But if you think about the relevance of your labors, well, you have to think about all of the above! 

Now this post would have probably concluded here, had it not been for a discussion with a friend, which I was lucky to have. While talking about an earlier post, and my discussion today, we realized that this issue of relevance is not just limited to technology practitioners. It is, in some sense, far more relevant to the technology practitioners of tomorrow! The engineering graduates of today. Yes, they face a much, much stiffer challenge to keep abreast of the latest technology. By the time they graduate, much of the stuff they learned in their junior years would already be outdated! Of course, the fundamental concepts stay the same. But their application is advancing by leaps and bounds. Is our system geared to handle this challenge? Obviously, this goes beyond the classrooms, and the labs. It goes into all those TechFests, and competitions and all the fun things that you do outside the classroom! But of course, the seeds of it have to be sown in our universities. And there lies the challenge. To the educators, as well as the students. Can they take up the gauntlet and make sure that what the universities produce is not just an 'assembly line' of engineering graduates, but guys who can actually innovate and think about tomorrow? This is especially true in a country like India, which severly needs innovators and innovation, if it is to retain the competitive advantage.  

I for Innovation, I for India

A few days ago, while chatting with a friend, she told me about an article that she read in a magazine. Till the time that a kid goes to school, s/he is always asking lots of questions about the world. Innocent questions, questions that often force adults to think for an answer. Questions about the world which amazes and stuns the little, curious kid. And then suddenly, the kid goes to school and stops asking the questions. For it is now the teacher who's doing all the asking! And the kid is expected to know the answers, rather than ask questions. And so s/he stops 'bothering' the adults with the questions. Does s/he stop having questions? Does the kid stop observing the amazing world around him? Most definitely not. But somewhere the kid learns - or is made to learn - that his questions are not really appreciated. And gradually, the kid stops having questions altogether! 

A few days ago read this article on Rediff, and that got me thinking. Why does India fall behind on innovation? Why does this nation of one billion plus (and growing!) fall short on ideas? And then while listening to my friend talk about this other article on kids and school, a thought came to my mind. It all starts very early, doesn't it? Very early on in life, at a stage where the child's imagination should develop wings and take off. Instead it is imprisoned in a cage with it's wings clipped. How else do you explain the fact that inspite of the leaps in information technology that India has made, there is little real innovation coming from us? Innovation is like a jigsaw puzzle. You have to figure out where - or what - are the missing pieces before you can put together the puzzle. And that requires constant questioning. What do I see here? How does this work? Why does it work the way it does? And kids often ask the most exciting questions! To their little minds, unbiased by any 'teaching', the world is one fascinating place, to be discovered, and explored and prodded. I remember reading the book The Pleasure of Finding Things Out, by Richard Feynman. There, Feynman talks about how, as a kid, his father used to take him to outdoor trips and ask him to observe nature. And learn by observing. And on the other hand, how the books in school teach by just stating things, and expecting that kids accept it without questioning! 

Well, let me make it clear, that I'm not writing this to rant about the education system, or teachers. But yes, some things definitely need to be looked at in a new light, if we are to move ahead in this Innovation Age. Indians definitely had the upper hand when it came to the Information Age. But that in itself will not suffice to move ahead. We will need to embrace the Innovation Age, if we are to propel ourselves in the big league, in the New Economy.